A Day Spent Canning

Sense of Home Kitchen

A day spent canning resulted in 4 pints red onions in vinegar, 4 quarts rhubarb juice, 4 quarts asparagus soup, and 9 quarts stock (chicken and beef).  The pantry is beginning to fill up again.

A friend went foraging for asparagus and shared her bounty, she knew I was hoping to get enough asparagus to can soup, I am very grateful for her generosity.  Wild asparagus does not always grow in neat evenly shaped stems, but the flavor is so much better that there just about isn't any comparison.  I love to eat those short little pieces that grow out the sides of the stem, I eat them raw and they taste like fresh garden peas, they are also good grilled.

I pressure canned both the asparagus soup and the stocks.  The soup had stock in it so I canned both at 11 pounds of pressure, not as scary as it sounds.  It is actually quite easy and with the new pressure canners it is safe.  See the pressure gauge above, it is at 11 pounds pressure, see the black line, that is the CAUTION zone, about 10 pounds of pressure more than the 11 required for stock.  Just watch the gauge and when it creeps up to 12, turn the heat down slightly, it will gradually come back down, gradual is best since you don't want the pressure to drop too low either.  I would turn the heat way down or even off if the gauge was approaching the caution area, I have never had to do that because I keep a close eye on the gauge, cleaning the kitchen and doing dishes, but not leaving the room.

I then made and canned rhubarb juice using the juicer you see here.  These jars are sitting on the counting waiting for that satisfying pop sound.  All the jars successfully sealed.

I got a bargain on a large bag of red onions so I sliced, combined with red wine vinegar, and canned.  I will post the recipe and process when I have time.

Because of the vinegar I was able to water-bath can the red onions.  I borrowed the jar rack from my pressure canner, the rack I have for my water-bath canner does not work well with pints and placing the jars directly on the bottom of the pot can cause jars to crack, or having them tip and fall through the rack that does not work well could result in jars cracking or not sealing properly.

The finished product, aren't they pretty?!  These onions will be good on salads and buying while the price is low saves money and provides a quality product, ready to use, on the shelves of my pantry.

While I slaved over a hot stove, Elroy, the cat, napped in the basement on his "hammock".

Roasted Golden Beets, Fennel, and Zucchini

Sense of Home Kitchen

Sorry for the long absence, life has been a little crazy lately, which will continue for at least the next month.  My parents are selling their health food store, it has actually been for sale for the last few years, they are ready to retire and I am not looking for another full time job.  I have enjoyed having the opportunity to work in the family business for the past nine months, but now there is a buyer and we have been very busy getting ready for the sale.  Besides work there is the garden that has been planted and appointments kept.  On the schedule for tomorrow is canning asparagus soup and rhubarb juice, I am making chicken stock for the soup as we speak.

We slowed down a little this past weekend, a planned motorcycle trip was cancelled due to cold, rainy weather and the time at home was welcomed.  For a late lunch today I made this roasted vegetable dish that was sweetened by caramelizing the sugars in the vegetables under high heat.  This simple recipe really brings out the flavors of each of the vegetables.  I came across these golden beets at the store today and decided I had to find a way to include them in our next meal, a fennel bulb, two zucchinis, some olive oil and black salt and we had an amazing lunch.

The vegetables have been sprinkled with Hawaiian black salt, giving the appearance of black pepper.  Black salt, or lava salt, from Hawaii is different than that from India, it has a slightly smoky flavor and is generally added after the cooking process, but works well added before roasting in this dish.  Black salt has several trace minerals that are essential for our bodies.  Unrefined salts, such as black salt, contain 80 essential minerals and elements and have medicinal value in small amounts, refined salts just add flavor, and not very good flavor at that.  I use a pink Himalayan salt and other unrefined salts on a daily bases, once you make the switch you can taste the difference.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Bars

Sense of Home Kitchen

It is the time of year for all things strawberry and rhubarb.  Our strawberries are blooming, but not producing yet, so I used the strawberries I froze last summer, they needed to be used before freezer burn set in, and our rhubarb is producing like crazy, thus this recipe was born.  In fact, I have so much rhubarb from my plants and my mother's plants that I will be making rhubarb juice to can soon.  First though I have to get my garden planted.  I have all the seeds and plants I need so hopefully I will be placing them in the soil tomorrow afternoon, the weather sounds like it will cooperate anyway.

This afternoon we went foraging for asparagus.  We found enough for tonight's dinner (grilled), but in a week or two there should be enough for preserving.  This year I plan to make and can or freeze asparagus soup, we prefer that to frozen asparagus.  I will, of course, not make the custards until we are ready to eat the soup next winter, or we will just splash a little cream into the soup or shave some Parmesan cheese on top of the soup for a quick meal.  I also learned from a friend that the tougher ends of asparagus that we have been tossing into the compost pile can be saved and used when making stock, now why didn't I think of that?  So I saved those ends and put them in the "stock bag" that I have in my freezer, which holds mushroom stems, celery tops, onion ends, bits of carrot, etc., and now asparagus ends.  When I am ready to make stock I have all the vegetables I need, and by the looks of the amount of vegetables I have saved it is time to make stock.

This post is very disjointed, strawberries, rhubarb, the garden, foraging for asparagus, and stock, but sometimes I feel a little disjointed.  That is why I have a household notebook.  In that notebook are lists, lots of lists.  I make lists for everything.  There are lists of maintenance and repairs we have done to the house, like when the furnace was cleaned last, when we put in drain tile and who did the work, which year we resided the house, including the color numbers for reference.  There are lists of foods I have preserved for the last several years, a list of fruits and vegetables that tend to be higher in either pesticide use and/or absorption, plants I have grown in the garden, items to research and study. Recipes for homemade cleaning products and home remedies.  There are a few of those remedies here and here, and a few of my homemade cleaners here.  This list could go on, but the reason I mention this is because over the past several years that I have been adding to this notebook I have found it to be extremely helpful and maybe someone else will as well, we can't remember everything.

Canning Rhubarb Sauce

I am home this morning, I have an appointment later on but thought I might start the day by working in our expanding garden.  Unfortunately rain has delayed those plans.  We have decided to expand our garden again this year, we are relying more and more on the food we grow ourselves and preserve so we are in need of more space.  Currently we have one garden in the back yard that is approximately 300 square feet and another backyard garden that is approximately 100 square feet, we are adding another 50 square feet to that garden.  This will bring our total backyard garden space to 450 square feet, not a large garden by any means, but we produce a lot of fruits and vegetables in this space.  Slowly our backyard is turning from grass to garden, trees and bushes.

We are able to produce strawberries, cherries, rhubarb, lots of raspberries, a few grapes, a few blueberries, lots of tomatoes, potatoes, squash, carrots, lettuce, spinach, beans, cucumbers, peas, peppers, eggplant, and a variety of other vegetables that I have forgotten at the moment.  I freeze, dehydrate, water-bath can and pressure can the foods we produce and we eat on these all winter.  Our pantry is looking sadly empty right now so I have been anxious to begin filling it again.  Rhubarb is ready to be picked and I have already been baking with it and there are more rhubarb recipes to come.  I have found though that for desserts fresh rhubarb is best, it becomes tough after it has been frozen, and so I do not plan to freeze as much this summer, just a few pints for breads, scones, and muffins. Rhubarb juice is fantastic, but making it requires a lot of rhubarb stalks and a lot of sugar for a quart or two of juice, so I will only make this if we end up with way more rhubarb than we can use.

Instead I have decided to can rhubarb sauce.  Rhubarb sauce is like applesauce, only with rhubarb.  More sugar needs to be used, but the taste is a wonderful sweet-tart flavor that has no match and being able to indulge in this sauce at the end of a cold, snowy day in mid-winter is a real treat.  I added cinnamon to this batch, I like to add cinnamon whenever I am able to, for the health benefits; the color is not as bright red, more of brownish red due to the cinnamon.  Please remember:  Never eat rhubarb LEAVES.  They are high in oxalic acid, which is poisonous.

Canning Rhubarb Sauce
~Sense of Kitchen, based on the instructions from Putting Food By~

To prevent pitting any of your sauce pots, it is best to use an enameled pot, such as this, when cooking rhubarb because it is an acidic vegetable.  The water-bath method of canning works for this sauce because of the level of acid in rhubarb.

Rhubarb stalks, fresh picked, leaves discarded
Sugar, 1/2 cup for each 4 cups of raw rhubarb
Cinnamon, to taste (optional)

Making the Sauce
Wash rhubarb stalks and trim ends, there is no need to peel the rhubarb if the stalks are young.  Cut the stalks into 1/2-inch pieces.  Measure.  Put rhubarb into an enameled pot, mix in 1/2 cup of sugar for every 4 cups of cut, raw rhubarb.  Let stand, covered, at room temperature for about 4 hours to draw out the juice.

While waiting for the rhubarb juice to be drawn out begin preparing your canning equipment as indicated below.

Add cinnamon to the rhubarb and sugar at this time if you wish.  Bring the pot of rhubarb slowly to a boil and boil for only 1 minute if you want the pieces left whole.  If you want the rhubarb pieces to break up and blend into more of a sauce as you see above, let the rhubarb cook for approximately 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Canning the Sauce
Fill the water-bath canner 2/3-full of water and place it on the stove over high heat to begin heating the water.

Wash and sterilize, in boiling water, pint jars and rings.  Fill sterilized jars with hot rhubarb sauce, using a wide-mouth funnel if you wish, leaving 1/2-inch of headroom, wipe rim with a clean cloth.  Place new lids in simmering water for 30 seconds, then place the lid on the jar and seal it with the ring.  Using a jar lifter, place the jars on the rack, in the canner and lower into the hot water.  If needed, add hot water to cover jars by 1-inch.  Bring the water to a rolling boil and begin timing.  Process either pints or quarts for 15 minutes.  Remove jars with jar lifter and place on a towel to cool.  Allow the jars to sit still for 24 hours.  Then check to see that the lid sealed, remove the ring, and wipe down the jar with a wet cloth to remove any sticky areas.  Place sealed jars in pantry and any that did not seal place them in the refrigerator to be eaten within the next week.

Serve the Sauce
The sauce is good cold, room temperature, or warmed.  Add a swirl of  cream for an extra treat.


Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Canning 
Sense of Home Kitchen / Homemade Living / Kitchen and Pantry

Tuscan Beef Stew with Polenta

I really did not need another stew recipe, I have plenty I have shared, such as this Moroccan stew and this Beef and Tomato Ragout with Sweet Potatoes.  But, when I read the title Tuscan Beef Stew with Polenta and realized I had several pounds of stew meat in the freezer, waiting to be used, I could not help myself.  I also had purchased polenta several weeks ago, which is really just corn grits, and I had not made any yet, in fact, I had never made polenta and was just waiting for an excuse to try it.  There are several kinds of foods I have either never cooked or never even eaten and I remain resolved to try each of them.

So really, for me this dish was about the polenta.  I had always thought corn bread was good with stews, so polenta was just a step sideways and when you can get a bite of stew and polenta in the same spoonful, well that is a warm, hearty meal for a cool, rainy, spring day.

An important component of this recipe is the wine, so choose wisely, make sure it is a wine you enjoy drinking because the wine flavor will come through, big and bold.

Spring is a wonderful time of year, but the weather is fickle, one day (yesterday) almost summer-like, I am digging in my garden, thinking about all the fresh vegetables we will have in another month, and the next day (today) it is cold and windy, and I am wrapped in an afghan thinking about warm, hearty meals.  I think I need a few more of those warm, sunny spring days.

Chicken Braised with Lemon Slices and Moscato

Sense of Home Kitchen

I love the conversations I have at work with customers.  Just today there was a couple of women in that were asking about dehydrated lemons, not dried lemon peel, or powdered lemon to make lemonade, or even the sliced dehydrated lemons or preserved lemons I make, no, she was looking for the whole lemon, dehydrated.  I had never heard of this product before (we sadly do not have a Trader Joes or Whole Foods anywhere near us, but then again that is good for our indie business that has survived over 20 years), but I was fascinated and had to know more.  She said she puts the whole dried lemon in a coffee grinder, grinds it, and adds the powder to her Moroccan dishes.

As soon as I got home I began searching for dried whole lemons and found them here, you can find anything on the Internet (don't tell my customers).  I also learned through some searching that they can be tossed whole into a tagine with chicken or lamb, spices, and vegetables for a Moroccan dish and I have found recipes for Iranian stews using the whole dried lemon.  So I am excited to give these recipes a try and this is back on my wishlist!